CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 170, 29 July 1901, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

LINEN THIEVES AT LAKGE.

To the Editor ov " The Evekjng Mail. Sir- Some three or four weeks ago mention was made in your columns of the fact that the ladies of this district had been losing various articles of underwear from their clothes lines. lam sorry to have to say that these abstractions have taken place for over a month U itil from fourteen to twenty articles have been tuken. The strange part of the a flair in that while in some cases comparatively valuable things have been on tbt) lines, only things of a certain class have been taken, the more valuable things remaining untouched. In all six or seven lines have been visited, soniet.mes only one article being- taken, others losing three and four. New and old things have been taken alike. The police to all appearances take things very quietly in Nelson. After the local in your paper they came down on one household with a search warrant, but rinding nothing either in or about to warrant the least suspicion against this family, they seem to have retired from the cuntest, or possibly the task of examining the houso of this innocent family iv as so exhausting that th*y have not yet recovered from the unwonted exertion. Moreover, this family has lost four arti« el 5 from their line*. Yet under thtse circumstances the police have refused to disclose wheie they obtained tue information that led tumn to take the action they did. how, 1 Lake it t'.iat the duty of the police is to project the . nnocent as u-ell as to punish the guilty, aud if they by false and malicious information have been led to inflict on this family this wrong, thereby causing in some measure lc a ard disgrace, it is their duty to at oi-ce make suc'a reparatioa as is in their power by bringing their informant forward to either prove their words or to suffer the penalty. From all appearances the whole thing is the action of the " larrikin " element of tins district, started I believe with the idea of exposing the stolen articles in some public place, probably on the new flagpole or on a line stretched across the public road. This I have heard called a •' lark " and a " piece of fun." Where the fun would come in it is hard to say, but this appears to be the gauge of the •' larikin "' element's All I can say is that if this is the correct solution of the affair it is a great pity that then 1 mothers ever left off giving them the feeding bottle until their minds should grow as their bodies have done. ° Any way it is a disgrace and a shame to our little village that these thefts should go on week after week without the offenders .being caught. I may also mention that at several places fowls, and from one place a ham, have been taken, but these thefts were on different nights from the clothing, and probably by different persons, i rusting that you will tind room in your paper for the foregoing, 1 am, etc., A VICTIM. Stoke, July 25th, 1001.